Critical infrastructure and latency in gaming

While esports competitions are high skill cap events, both hobby gamers and elite professionals alike expect optimal network conditions when they play games. A suboptimal network can turn an enjoyable event into an infuriating one that drives players away. With tens of thousands of games released annually, it’s crucial to keep your players happy by making the right technical decisions, especially in professional tournaments where millions of dollars are on the line. Choosing between self-hosting critical infrastructure or using third-party infrastructure-as-a-service or software-as-a-service providers directly affects latency and playability for end users. Critical infrastructure includes servers that process game logic, authentication servers, and more, which must be hosted to ensure availability, scalability, and disaster recovery. Network latency is a key factor in ensuring good gameplay, particularly in competitive games like multiplayer shooters and RTS games where milliseconds can make the difference between winning and losing. The impact of network latency was highlighted by issues with Rocket League and Apex Legends, leading players to suffer errors such as disconnections and lag spikes that cost them games or even entire tournaments.

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